Margaret Qualley Had ‘Crazy Prosthetic Acne’ After ‘The Substance’

With awards season upon us, many of us—myself included—are trying to catch up on our watchlists to ensure we’re up to date with all the hottest releases in film and television. One of the most buzzed-about films of the 2025 awards circuit is The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. The film has been known to leave viewers pondering and replaying the graphic yet thought-provoking scenes. As it turns out, though, the psychological fallout from The Substance was just one of the lasting impacts for Qualley. She revealed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast this week that the prosthetics wreaked havoc on her skin.

Margaret Qualley Gets Real About Her ‘Crazy Prosthetic Acne’

Personally, I needed a few days to clear my head after watching The Substance, so I can’t even imagine living it. But, the effects were more visible for actress Qualley, who played Sue. Do you recall the scenes of Sue towards the end of the movie that focus on everything but her face? Well, the choice was intentional, Qualley revealed. “At the end [of the movie], when they’re shooting up my skirt in the beginning of the credits, and there’s the palm trees all around and they have all these long lenses from the bottom, that’s just because my face was so f**ked up,” Qualley said on the podcast. She revealed that “They couldn’t shoot my face anymore.”

After filming in elaborate prosthetics, Qualley experienced serious breakouts, which though annoying ended up serving her well for her next role in Kinds of Kindness. In the Yorgos Lanthimos film, Qualley plays four different characters, one of which suffers from severe acne. Qualley was able to give her face a rest and let her skin breathe while filming those scenes. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is kind of perfect,’” she said on the podcast. “I’m playing all these different characters. For one of them, we’ll use all my crazy prosthetic acne.’”